Faith's Cruciamentum
by mmooch
Summary: <html><head></head>Faith and Buffy bond over their respective Slayer tests. WARNING: a little anti-Giles.</html>


**Faith's Cruciamentum**

Summary: Faith and Buffy bond over their respective Slayer tests. WARNING: a little anti-Giles.

Challenge: Random thought I had when thinking about the idea that Faith was older than Buffy.

Warning: could be construed as Giles bashing if you squint

Timeline: just after '_Helpless'_

A/N: I know her birthday was December 14, 1980, but I'm going to give her the test early.

Thanks to my betas: none

Disclaimer: BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

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><p><strong>Faith's hotel room<strong>

Once she heard from Willy that Faith was back patrolling, Buffy went over to her motel. She moved past Faith in the doorway, went to the bed and flopped down onto her stomach. She turned her head and said/complained, "You missed all the excitement during your little walkabout."

Faith walked to the other side of the bed and sat down before correcting her, "I didn't take any walkabout; they kept me locked up until after your test was over. Didn't want me to 'compromise the results' or something like that," she obviously quoted Travers or one of his minions.

Buffy popped up to her knees and glared at her. "You knew about it? Why didn't you warn me?" she demanded.

"What's to warn? It's something we have to do in order to unlock our full Slayer abilities," Faith replied with a shrug of her shoulders. At least that's how it had been explained to her six months earlier. "Besides, I never figured G would be that big of a bastard," she added, proving that she knew at least some of the details of Buffy's test. When Buffy gave her a confused look, she explained, "Top Watcher dude gave me the highlights before cutting me loose."

"Then you know that he helped me; got fired for it and everything," Buffy said in a half-hearted attempt to defend Giles, but Faith could see her heart wasn't entirely in it. Not that it should be in Faith's opinion.

"So did D, except she told me about the test before giving me the drugs. Kinda expected your Watcher to do the same for you 'cause you're all _close_ and everything," Faith said, putting sarcastic quotes on the word close. She got up and grabbed a couple beers from her mini-fridge, cracked them open and handed one to Buffy. "Too bad the vamp they picked out for my test didn't want to play by their rules."

To her utter shock, Buffy actually took a swig from the bottle before making a face and shuddering slightly from the taste. "So Kakistos…" Buffy started, putting the pieces together.

Faith finished the thought for her, "Was supposed to be on the Council payroll, so to speak. Guess he didn't like the benefits package enough to stay there. My test wasn't supposed to be until last month, but they decided it was necessary to move it up." She took an extra-large pull from the bottle in an attempt to forget the images of D being tortured in front of her. She'd be having some nightmares tonight if she didn't find a way to get it off her mind. Maybe some therapeutic slaying was in order. If Buff's strength was back, she'd probably enjoy taking her frustrations out on some vamps, too.

"What is wrong with those people?! Kakistos and Kralick are dangerous enough at full strength, but to put us up against them in a weakened state? It's like they want us to die or something!" Buffy ranted while pacing around the room, taking a long drink of the beer at the end. Her reaction to the taste wasn't as pronounced this time.

For the first time since her Watcher explained the test to her, Faith had serious doubts about it. She didn't think D would lie to her…but that didn't mean the other Watchers wouldn't lie to D about it. "So you aren't feeling extra Slayer-ish or anything?" she asked in a pleading way. If it was all for nothing… "Damn, I was hoping that it didn't work for me because I didn't take Kakistos down on my own," she muttered almost to herself and made a silent vow that she'd make those fuckers pay if she ever saw them again.

Buffy interrupted her darkening thoughts, "What now?"

"What do you mean?" Faith asked.

"I mean they're going to send another Watcher to take over for Giles," Buffy explained. "While I'm still angry with him, I don't want some stranger coming in either."

If it was one of those assholes in charge, Faith would have a different answer, but since it was probably some other grunt Watcher, she said "Ignore 'em. They're only there for the research anyway. We'll do our slay thing and leave the boring stuff to the suits."

The beer appeared to be starting to affect Buffy. What a lightweight! "Tempting," she said softly.

Faith gave her one of her patented shit-eating grins and replied, "And way more fun!"

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><p>AN: Wanted to give the girls a bonding moment and who better to rail against than the organization who cost them their Watchers (Faith in the permanent sense and Buffy in the trust department)?


End file.
